Case Categories: Child Pornography Laws

Child pornography, a form of sexual expression depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, is not entitled to First Amendment protection.

It is similar to obscenity in that it represents a category of sexual expression lacking First Amendment protection, but it covers material that does not meet the legal definition of obscenity.

The federal and state governments have passed numerous statutes outlawing child pornography as well as laws intended to protect children from seeing pornography or obscene images.

Below are cases involving First Amendment challenges to both child pornography laws and laws intended to protect minors from exposure to pornography.

• Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002, 2004)

  Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) struck down a law designed to protect children from Internet pornography on grounds it violated the First...

• Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)

  Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) struck down a ban virtual child pornography, which, being neither obscene nor child pornography, was protected by the...

• New York v. Ferber (1982)

  New York v. Ferber (1982) is the foundational decision in which the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not protect child pornography...

• Osborne v. Ohio (1990)

  Osborne v. Ohio (1990) established that the First Amendment right to free speech did not forbid states from enforcing laws against private possession of child...

• Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)

  Reno v. ACLU (1997) said provisions of the Communications Decency Act that regulated Internet speech were too restrictive and violated the First Amendment...

• United States v. Williams (2008)

  The Supreme Court in 2008 upheld a provision of a federal child pornography law that makes it a crimes to advertise, promote or present child pornography even...